Mur­der trial hears dead man suf­fered 100 in­juries

At the High Court in Ed­in­burgh yes­ter­day crim­i­nal pathol­o­gist Dr Ker­ryann Shearer said an or­na­men­tal knife was still in place when she ex­am­ined the body of Alexan­der Forbes, 25. It had punc­tured the lungs and gone into the spine.

The cause of death was blood loss from a wound to the heart.

Adrian Hynd, 51, of Victoria Road, Kirk­caldy, de­nies mur­der­ing Mr Forbes on Jan­uary 2 by seiz­ing him by the neck, re­peat­edly punch­ing him on the head and re­peat­edly strik­ing him with a knife on the head and body. Hynd has lodged a plea of self-de­fence.

The court heard the men met on Hog­manay at a bar in Kirk­caldy and went back to Hynd’s house.

Forbes was stabbed on the ab­domen, but­tocks, lower back and thighs and there were 10 in­cise wounds on his face, head and neck.

De­fence QC, Mark Ste­wart, put it to Dr Shearer that if some­one was en­gaged in a strug­gle and sought to de­fend them­selves, that could lead to in­juries.

She agreed. She also agreed that some of the in­cise in­juries could have come from the sharp points on the knife, if two peo­ple were rolling about on the floor.

Hynd told po­lice he had been hit on the head with a bot­tle and had grabbed the knife blade when be­ing at­tacked by it. The trial con­tin­ues.